Happy Birthday, Church!
2018년 5월 20일50 days after Passover, Jews celebrate the Feast of Booths (Shivuoth), when God gave the Commandments to Moses. This transformed them from being a group of being a ragtag group of freed slaves into being a special people, living by the Laws of God. Being faithful Jews, the disciples gathered to celebrate Shivuoth, when something marvelous happened: the wind blew, the house shook, and they were filled with the Spirit of God.
Rushing out into the crowded streets, the disciples began proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ in different languages. God was calling together all peoples of the world to form one People of Faith. The Church is born!
In one regard, Pentecost is the most essential, if not the most important event in salvation history. What good would it have been for Jesus to rise from the dead but nobody ever hear about it? Yes, the death of Jesus on the cross freed us from sin, and the Resurrection shattered the gates of death, but the Holy Spirit on Pentecost gave the Apostles the courage and conviction to face persecution and death to proclaim the gospel to all the world. Why? So we might repospond to it and be transformed by that same Holy Spirit. We commemorate Christmas. We celebrate Easter. But we participate in Pentecost.